Toddler 'sold' to paedophile

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The paedophile, caught in a nationwide operation, offered to pay the money to a man to experience ''sexual gratification'' with the man's 18-month-old son, a police summary says.

The paedophile, Aaron Ellmers, 41, appeared in the Hastings District Court today and pleaded guilty to a raft of child-sex offences that the Crown has described as among the country's worst.

One of the offences involved Ellmers travelling to Christchurch, to pay the father $500 for sex with his 18-month-old boy.

The father was arrested and is facing charges related to the incident.

He has name suppression.

Ellmers was arrested before he could offend against the toddler.

He pleaded guilty to more than 20 charges of making a copy of an objectionable publication and of possessing, unlawful sexual connection with a boy under 12, 11 charges of indecently assaulting a boy under 12, stupefying another person, making an intimate visual recording, making a ''forced labour'' deal using a person under 18 for sex, attempting sexual contact with a boy aged under 2, doing an indecent act to insult and attempting unlawful sexual connection with a boy under 12.

Ellmers was part of a paedophile ring smashed by police, said Detective Senior Sergeant John Michael, head of Online Child Exploitation Across New Zealand.

He said the operation began last July and involved staff across the country and overseas.

Two other men, one in Canterbury and one in Auckland, were before the courts facing charges similar to those as Ellmers.

Police also made 35 referrals to police overseas. Ellmers had served a prison sentence in Australia before being deported to New Zealand.

He lived in Australia between 1999 and 2008.

In 2004, he sexually abused an 8-year-old boy he had groomed after befriending his parents.He served five years in prison and was deported to New Zealand in 2008.

In court today, Crown lawyer Steve Manning said it was among the worst offending of its kind.

He asked for the matter to be moved to the High Court as an application for preventive detention would be made.

Ellmers' lawyer, Liz Litt, opposed the change of jurisdiction, but Judge Bridget Mackintosh transferred it to the High Court.